


Adjustment & Acceptance

by Sandyclaws68



Series: Grieving Process [3]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Developing Relationship, F/M, Gen, Keith & Pidge | Katie Holt Friendship, Krolia is a good mom, Mutual Pining, Post Season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-13 19:07:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,850
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15371331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sandyclaws68/pseuds/Sandyclaws68
Summary: With acceptance comes the end of one road, and the beginning of another.  One that they can traverse together.





	Adjustment & Acceptance

_ “You know, if there was, like, maybe the possibility of something more I wouldn’t say no.” _

_ “Something more?” _

_ “Well, yeah. I mean it wouldn’t be a bad thing, would it?  Maybe?” _

_ “Maybe.” _

****~**~**~**~**~****

Sometimes it felt like that conversation had happened just yesterday, and sometimes it felt like longer than the year or so that had passed.  Everything that had happened, everything they had been through, was almost enough to convert one to a belief in dog years, Pidge had commented to Hunk one evening.  He had laughed, but hadn’t argued.

It was especially galling at times when she remembered the few, tentative, steps she and Keith had taken towards something more than friendship before everything had fallen apart.  When he had been forced into taking over as the Black Lion’s pilot the pressure had been immense, and Pidge hadn’t been mature enough to help him through it.  And when he had chosen the Blade of Marmora over Voltron she had accepted the decision, forcing down what she believed was unreasonable anger.

But that anger could only stay buried for so long, and although she never really let Keith see it she couldn’t avoid showing the others.  Allura had been her preferred audience, mainly because Pidge sensed that the princess was just as angry and frustrated with the situation as she was.

But in just a few days everything had been turned upside-down.  Keith had returned to the team, but it was a Keith that she felt like she didn’t know.  He was taller, broader through the shoulders, hair longer and shaggier, but the change in his emotional presence was what she had really noticed.  He was now a true leader, a true commander, and every positive feeling towards him that she had tried to eradicate had surged back to life.

Although she could admit that being introduced to his mother had put a bit of a damper on things.

Not that Krolia wasn’t kind and pleasant.  She was, and both Pidge and Allura felt the comfort of having another woman in the team’s mix.  But even so she made Pidge jittery, always feeling like a disapproving set of eyes were on her, despite the ridiculousness of the idea.

It was particularly ridiculous in light of the fact that Keith had been avoiding her since Lotor’s defeat, the destruction of the Castle, and the start of their journey back to Earth.

Without a wormhole that journey would have taken entirely too long, so Allura decided they would stop on Olkarion and build a new teledav system inside the Black Lion.  With the help of that planet’s skilled engineers the job was not expected to take too long, so everyone was taking advantage of the brief break.  Even Coran was enjoying the lazy vacation atmosphere.

Pidge spent most of her time in the forest with the Green Lion, the pair of them even spending at least one night out there.  She would always hold a special affection for this place, for this planet, where she had felt truly connected to nature for the first time in her life.  The place where she had unlocked her Lion’s true power.

“I’m rather surprised to find you out here.”

She managed to not jump in surprise so hard that she slid off of Green, but only just.  By the smile that teased Krolia’s lips the older woman had definitely noticed, though.  “It shouldn’t be that great a surprise,” Pidge responded, shifting her butt to make sure her seat was secure.  “Green is the Guardian Spirit of the Forest, after all.”

“Oh, I know,” Krolia commented with a nod.  “But I thought you were all computers and technology and. . . well all that sort of thing.”

Pidge grinned.  “I am.  But I was taught a valuable lesson by the Olkari the first time we were here.”  She turned her head to look out across the expanse of trees laid out before her.  “Everything - trees, grass, computers, even sentient beings - are all made from the same cosmic dust, so we’re all interconnected.”  She felt a flush spread across her cheeks at the pompous sounding words but pressed on.  “I was able to become a better scientist, a better techie, and a better Paladin once I understood that.  Even a better person.”

Krolia gracefully sank down to sit beside Pidge, smile now on full display and making her look even more like Keith.  “I think we can all stand to learn how to be better people.”  She leaned back on her hands and stared up at the sky.  “That was the one thing I carried with me from Keith’s father.”  Her voice was soft and forlorn, maybe even a little wistful.  “And two years on the back of a space whale with my son only reinforced that feeling.  I didn’t have the opportunity to watch him grow up, but I feel beyond privileged to have seen the man he became during that journey.  She dropped her gaze then and cast a sidelong glance Pidge’s way.  “He talked about all of you, you know.  A lot.”

Pidge’s eyes widened in surprise but she did her best to keep her tone casual.  “I imagine topics of conversation might be a little limited in that situation.”

Choosing to ignore that comment Krolia went on as if Pidge hadn’t spoken.  “He especially talked about Shiro and a young woman he met during his time at that school.  He said that she was a great help to him when he was still feeling his way after Shiro’s reported death.”

“What else did he say about her?” Pidge asked, dropping her eyes and turning her gaze away from the Galra woman beside her.

It was a good thing Pidge turned away, otherwise she might have been disconcerted by the knowing smile on Krolia’s face.  “He told me that she was scary intelligent, in both the book and practical senses.  But that she was also quick-witted, had a great sense of humor, and was kind, caring, and compassionate.”  She watched as bright red stained her companion’s ears and climbed her cheeks.  “He said she was special.”  Krolia grinned.  “Katie.  That’s what he said her name was.”

Pidge felt like her face was on fire.  A part of her was drowning in disbelief that she was having this conversation with Keith’s  _ mother _ , of all people, while another part wanted to hear more of whatever praise he had lavished on her.  It was not the sort of internal conflict she was accustomed to, and it took a conscious effort to control her tendency to nervously babble.  She was the verge of caving, though, when Krolia administered the final blow.

“He also told me that Katie was you.”

“Oh God,” Pidge groaned as her hands covered her face.  Why was all of this coming through the filter of his mother instead of from Keith himself.  She had thought they had made an honest connection during that much-remembered conversation, but it wasn’t hard to understand why things may have gone south in the intervening time.  Keith’s dedication to the Blade of Marmora had created a degree of estrangement from the rest of the team, even if it wasn’t really anyone’s fault.  It just made sorting out things like pesky, unresolved feelings more difficult.

And as if it wasn’t difficult enough. . .

“Krolia.”

That single word was all the warning Pidge received before she felt a sort of explosion of compressed air and suddenly found herself with God-only-knows how many pounds of space wolf materialized in her lap.  It was difficult to hear the exchange between mother and son with all of that fur and muscle smothering her, so Pidge just gave up and scratched the creature behind the ears the way her own dog back on Earth liked.  She chuckled at the pleased rumbling deep in the animal’s chest, more like a cat’s purr than any sound she had ever heard a canine make.

“He likes you.”

Pidge’s spine stiffened and she stopped the ear scratching.  With an angry huff of breath the wolf disappeared from her lap and reappeared standing next to Keith, who was disturbingly close to her.  The tide of red started to creep back up her face, so to avoid things she didn’t want to discuss she fell back on their old pattern of banter.

“Are you sure that thing is really some sort of wolf?” she asked, nodding to where his companion was sitting at Keith’s feet, tail curled around his paws.  “Because that purring thing sounds more like a cat.”

Keith laughed and moved closer, dropping to sit in the soft grass beside Pidge with the wolf leaning against his side.  “Yeah, I find that a little strange too, but compared to teleportation. . .”  His words trailed off as he smiled and pushed a hand through his hair.

Pidge swallowed hard as the sweep of Keith’s hand pushed his hair away from his face, making his violet eyes stand out that much more.  “Have. . . um, have you named him yet?” she asked, voicing the first thing that came to mind.

“Not yet,” was the reply, with a shake of his head that made the hair flop back into his face.  “Lance suggested Lobo.”

“So he thinks you should name your cosmic space wolf. . . Wolf.”

“Yeeeeeah, not sure I’m gonna go that route, although it’s better than pretty much anything Krolia or Coran have suggested.  Romelle too; I’m convinced, based on naming evidence alone, that she and Coran are somehow related.”  He glanced sidelong at Pidge when she giggled.  “You have any ideas?  And before it comes up, no, I am not naming him Rover.”

“Spoilsport.”  She knocked their shoulders together, chuckling when Keith took an exaggerated fall to one side.  “What about Vento?  It means “wind” in Italian, and that teleportation trick is pretty breezy, don’t you think?”

“That’s not too bad, actually.”  Keith glanced off to one side where his wolf had wandered, following some interesting scent in the grass.  “Vento?  Come here buddy!”

The air around them exploded with a sound like a thunderclap before they were buried under a mountain of happily panting fur.  The newly christened Vento worked at licking every exposed inch of Keith’s skin as the Paladin tried to shove him off, laughing the entire time.  Pidge wanted to deny her feelings, but with each chuckle causing her heart to thump in double-time it was getting more difficult.

Keith seemed to sense that something was up because he fought his way out from under Vento and sat up so her could meet Pidge’s gaze directly.  His ears turned a delicate shade of pink as soon as their eyes connected and he cleared his throat a little too loudly.  “I. . . uh, I feel like I’m always having to apologize to you,” he almost whispered, finally getting Vento off of his lap.

Pidge’s eyes widened in surprise.  “What?!  Why?”

“No matter what the situation I always seem to do or say exactly the wrong thing,” Keith explained with an awkward half-shrug.  “I pretty much told you that I liked you and was interested in maybe something more than friendship, but then everything kind of went -”

“Kerplooey?”

“Is that the current technical jargon?” Keith asked with a snort of laughter.

“It’s the best I’ve got at the moment.,” was the reply with an answering grin.  “And for the record you don’t need to apologize; nothing that happened was your fault.”

Keith looked a little surprised at her vehemence before shaking his head.  “I’m gonna have to disagree with you on this one,” he said.  “Everything that happened with me taking over as the Black Paladin may not have been my choice, but leaving to devote myself to the Blade of Marmora was.  And that was what drove a wedge between us.”  He looked away from her, off into the distance but without really seeing.  “It drove a wedge between me and all of you, but what hurt the most was turning my back on you, Katie.”

Pidge sucked in a surprised breath at his use of her proper name, forcibly reminded of the things his mother had told her about some of his thoughts during their time together.  That Keith thought she was kind, caring, and compassionate.  That she was special.

“I’m not going to deny that watching you walk away hurt,” she began, choosing her words carefully.  “But I understood why you chose the way you did.”  She reached out and laid her hand over his where it rested in the grass, the gesture pulling his gaze back to her.  “I could never fault you for doing what you thought was best.”

Keith shook his head, allowing Pidge to catch a glimpse of the tears glittering on his lower lashes.  “You should,” he whispered, voice rough with emotion.  “You should all blame me.  I went missing at the worst possible time, making Lotor’s actions possible, and -”

The flow of words ended abruptly when Pidge pressed a finger to his lips, blinking away her own gathering tears.  “Stop.  Just. . . don’t.  Lotor’s actions were his own; you bear no responsibility for any of that.  In fact you deserve credit for bringing us the evidence of just who and what he was.”  She shook her head and when she spoke again her voice cracked.  “And you brought Shiro back to us.  You fought so hard for that.”  She reached out and laid a hand on his right cheek, where the scar had been seared into his skin from Shiro’s cybernetic arm.  “You’ve done so much, suffered so much, and I. . .”  Her voice broke on a sob before she shifted closer, burying her face in Keith’s shoulder as she cried.

For a moment Keith was too stunned to react, but then he wrapped his arms tight around Pidge and held her close as she wept.  It occurred to him that it was entirely possible this was the first time she had cried since the “deaths” of her father and brother, which meant it was a much needed release.  He could feel warm moisture flowing down his cheeks as they sat, united in their leftover grief.

How long they stayed like that he didn’t know, but as soon as the worst of the emotional storm passed Keith loosened his arms, allowing Pidge to pull away just enough so he could see her face.  It was bright red from a combination of tears and embarrassment.

“Sorry,” she muttered, trying to wipe her face dry with her hands.  “I didn’t mean to, uh. . . make such a mess out of, well everything.”  In a burst of air Vento appeared at her side and proceeded to start licking her face, making Pidge laugh and try, without much effect, to push the animal away.  “Okay, okay, it’s fine!” she gasped out between giggles.  “All clean now!”

Keith felt a relieved smile growing on his face as Pidge visibly cheered up and his mood followed suit.  He still had some residual guilt, but he knew now that it wouldn’t crush him.  It would take time, he didn’t doubt, but the team’s cracks would be repaired like  _ kintsugi _ , the gold highlighting the history of how they broke apart and came back together, stronger for all they had been through.

“You’re looking happier,” Pidge commented, digging her fingers into the ruff at Vento’s neck and scratching.

“I am, a bit,” was Keith’s reply.  “I don’t feel anywhere as guilty as before, thanks to you.”  He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed.  “You’re a special person, Katie Holt.  Especially to me.”  He laid his cheek against her hair.  “I wanted to tell you, just in case you haven’t figured it out on your own.”

Pidge sighed and snuggled closer.  “If you’re still interested in something more than friendship I’m not against the idea,” she whispered.

“Maybe.”

She punched his arm.  “Ass.”  The sat in silence as the Olkarion sun began to set, the only sound the rustling of the breeze in the trees and the odd purr coming from Vento.  “Would you, um. . . stay out here with me tonight?” Pidge finally asked, breaking the quiet and causing Keith’s eyebrows to shoot up.  “I’ve stayed out here a couple of nights since we arrived, just enjoying the forest with Green, but I know she wouldn’t object and I’d really like some company?”

Keith chuckled softly.  “Why was that last part a question?”  When Pidge scowled he leaned in and kissed her temple.  “I’d love to spend the time with you,” he replied.  “And I’d better do it know, since the last message we received from Matt said to expect his arrival tomorrow afternoon.”

Pidge jerked away from him, surprise and delight shining on her face.  “Really?!”  When Keith nodded she clapped her hands, pleased, and then burst out laughing.

“What?  What’s so funny?”

“Oh, you know.  Just thinking about Matt and his ability to fall in love at first sight.”  She gave Keith a sidelong glance.  “And Romelle,” was her conclusion

The forest rang with their shared laughter, including a few complementary barks from Vento.


End file.
